We’re gearing up to start another year of homeschooling next week and wanted to share with you our favorite curriculum for young children. During the early years we enjoy using A.C.E. {Accelerated Christian Education}. They use wonderful animal stories to teach kindergarteners letter sounds. In each story is a hidden character lesson. Your child will be learning more than just letters and numbers. What we’ve found to be most beneficial is the biblical lessons sewn into each subject. They will be learning Bible stories as its own subject also.
I won’t lie, there are parts that can be construed as politically incorrect. You have to remember that, depending on which edition you get, some of these were written back in the 1970’s. But that in no way makes them any less engaging and enjoyable. Our children have always been eager to read more of each story. A letter sound is given an entire week on it’s own. So for example ā is for āpe. The story talks about aging ape and how he is greedy and not considerate of others. Aging Ape learns a big lesson by the end of the week on how to share. The long letter ā sound is used throughout the entire week.
Throughout the Bible stories the children are taught, in an easy to understand way, about the gospel. They learn about creation, David, Jesus, Paul, etc. There are stories that were made more memorable for me in the A.C.E. curriculum because of how it is written. And there have been plenty of times my kids have remembered Bible stories that I had to think about.
Now we do change up curriculums when we get to second and third grade. But we’ve already had three of our kids go through A.C.E. for kindergarten and we plan on having the rest of them do it as well. The character lessons are worth every penny. It’s just a side benefit that they learn letters, math, history and science.
Before I finish this post I want to add that we chose A.C.E. because I wasn’t confident in my ability to educate my children on my own. A.C.E. is a full curriculum that guides you through the teaching process. It helped so much that I’ve gained the confidence and am now reaching out into other ways of teaching our children. A more hands on approach. But that’s a whole other post for another day. For now, if you’re curious about homeschooling and you’re a follower of Christ. I strongly encourage you to try A.C.E. with your young ones. Build a good, strong, biblical foundation.
Blessings!
